Renee Stephens is just pissed she can't control all the minds on the internets...

i was reading about some backlash against a husband that was awful toward the woman who traded places/families with his own wife, Renee Stephens, on a reality tv show. In turn, Renee Stephens apparently disrespected and used all kinds of condescension on the family she was placed with...to put it nicely.

An Owen Thomas article (on Valleywag ) about the WifeSwap contestant posted the wife's online apologies, in which this woman claimed her husband had only agreed to participate in the show to please her. So, i looked around online to see if this woman was for real.

Renee Stephens' active and poorly designed website is undoubtedly from back in the day when she couldn't afford to send her kids to a $40k a year private school.

She puts a lot of worth on one's education, and seems to insult people without advanced degrees. Although her current blog containing the apology was taken offline, there is a blog entry from 2007 on ourhypnospace.com in which she states "I'm entering a doctoral program in Psychology in the Fall at the California Institute of Integral Studies..." and she "holds an MBA from the London Business School, and BA with Distinction from the University of Virginia. She is a Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Certified Life Coach and Certified Destination Coach".

This woman was only trained and qualified to sell things...which she did, by inventing her own weight-loss method.

So, WTF is 'neuro linguistic programming'?!!! (to find out, see Slate.com, Skeptic's Dictionary and this NLP website) Let alone, a 'certified destination coach'? i still have no idea, except it has something to do with controlling your own brain's function. Then, there's the part about hynotizing yourself and believing you can persuade others through your words. Sounds like a marketing class taken to the self-help level to me...but, maybe it worked on the poor man who fell under the spell and married her.

why i hate Orange County...part 2 (?)

The Obama room is too much for customers of Anaheim's White House Restaurant. And i'm not talking about the price!!

There's a little too much gold décor, but i'd like to eat there, anyway...

why i hate Enterprise Rent A Car

success!

if you know me, you may have been aware of my ongoing issue with Enterprise Rent a Car since this past April. i won't post the entire chain of correspondence stupidity here, since i am elated to announce that i took them to small claims court, and WON!!!

in a nutshell: i rented a car, the power steering broke and leaked all over my street, they gave me a replacement car, rented me a car one more time weeks later, then sent me an $1800.00 bill, accusing me of damage they claim i caused. i pleaded with them over the course of six months to hear me out and consider evidence that i had not damaged the car...i asked them for some official policies, estimates, proof and other records which they never sent me...they sent me to collections...and finally, i filed a case in small claims court, for the amount i refused to pay.

the judge ruled i should drop the case, on the stipulation that Enterprise: 1) does not sue me regarding this matter, and 2) takes me off their collections list. Enterprise agreed.

hurray! huzzah! calloo-callay!!!!

learn a f(*&ing instrument!

jesus. and i thought air guitar competitions were completely idiotic...

"Blake Peebles, 16, of Raleigh, dropped out of school last year to devote
himself to playing 'Guitar Hero'." http://www.newsobserver.com/2766/story/1155589.html

TOOK MY SHIRT OFF AT THE POLLING PLACE...

at MY polling place on St. Andrews Pl. in zip 90621, they asked me to remove my Barack Obama tshirt. i suppose that makes sense cos you're not supposed to 'campaign' within a certain number of feet of a polling place...at least that's what my friend WaDi told me.

however, at a polling place at San Dimas Sheriff's station, my 'decline-to-state' friend ChriCa asked for a democrat ballot, which she took and filled out a vote for Obama. she did not fill out any other votes at the time for the various propositions. upon turning it in, an alarm went off and the lady working asked "did you not vote for anything?" and my friend replied, "yes, but just for president". the lady told her "give it to me, i'll take care of it." but my friend had no guarantee that her vote was counted. on top of this, my friend later learned the polling place lady had neglected to tell her that she should have indicated 'democrat' on the ballot, even though she had asked for, and supposedly had been given, one. what's up with that??!!